


Wake me up when off-season ends

by emotionalsupportfastcars



Category: Formula 1 RPF
Genre: 2018 F1 Season, Ambiguous Relationships, Characters Playing Pokemon GO, Friendship, Gen, Hopeful Ending, M/M, Melancholy, Pokemon GO Shenanigans, Red Bull Racing, Shippy Gen, Slice of Life, Wistful
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-03
Updated: 2021-03-03
Packaged: 2021-03-16 06:40:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,838
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29820921
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/emotionalsupportfastcars/pseuds/emotionalsupportfastcars
Summary: Dan: Heard you’re catching Pokémon again. Can you catch an English Pikachu for me?There are 13 weeks to go before the season-opening 2018 Melbourne Grand Prix begins. Max is at home in Monaco, while Daniel is back home with his family in Australia. There is not a lap of racing in sight.They mope around.
Relationships: Daniel Ricciardo & Max Verstappen, Daniel Ricciardo/Max Verstappen
Comments: 1
Kudos: 34





	Wake me up when off-season ends

**Friday 10.28am  
22 December 2017  
Max’s apartment. Monaco.**

Max sits on the floor of the hallway just inside his front door with a baseball in his right hand. He throws the ball to the floor. It bounces, rises up to hit the wall, and comes back down towards him. He catches the ball with his left hand, which is protected by a baseball glove. Throw and catch. Throw and catch.

Throw and —

He misses the ball, and it goes hurtling into the living room. 

There’s a distant _thud_ , and Max sighs before hauling himself to his feet.

Daniel wouldn't have missed that one.

  


* * *

  


**Friday 5.33pm  
22 December 2017  
Perth, Australia**

Daniel’s at a mate’s place in Perth, and they’ve got a driving simulator. It’s nowhere near the quality of the simulator that Daniel has back in Monaco. And of course, Daniel’s own simulator is nowhere near as good as the multi-million dollar simulator at Red Bull’s factory. But it’s off-season, and Daniel misses racing.

His mate’s gone off to the supermarket to grab some steaks for tonight’s dinner, and Daniel’s at a bit of a loose end. So he texts his mate and gets his permission to use the simulator.

A few quick tweaks to the simulator’s physical seat and the virtual car’s setup, and Daniel’s off to the races.

He’s racing the Sepang track. Malaysia. It’s not on the race calendar for this season, but he got on the podium during his last two races there. A win in 2016, and a third place finish last year in 2017.

And then, Daniel brakes too late and oversteers. A moment later, he’s spinning on the virtual grass. He automatically hits the pause button and turns to look over his right shoulder.

But no Dutch-accented voice begins teasing him about his uncharacteristic error.

It’s then that Daniel remembers that Malaysia 2016 was a Red Bull one-two — Max the runner-up to his champion. And now that Daniel thinks about it, he managed third place at Malaysia 2017, but it was Max who won the race. The day after his 21st birthday. 

Daniel remembers a fan’s poster from that weekend. ‘Race like it’s your birthday.’

If Daniel remembers correctly, Max snatched the race lead from Lewis very early on and proceeded to dominate the race, winning it by quite a few seconds.

Max certainly raced like it was his birthday.

  


* * *

  


**Tuesday 2.17pm  
2 January 2018  
Red Bull Technology Factory. Milton Keynes, England.**

Max listlessly wanders the grounds of Red Bull Racing’s factory.

It’s still off-season and it’s not even February, so he doesn’t need to be back yet, of course. But he just… wants to be near the factory. Wants to be near his beloved car.

He flashes his access pass and ID, and the guards let him in, though they certainly give him some curious looks.

Wandering the grounds with no aim in mind is boring, so Max re-downloads Pokémon Go and sets about seeing what Red Bull Racing’s factory has to offer in terms of Pokémon.

He spies a Pidgey on his phone screen, and taps it. Luckily, he’s still got some Pokéballs from the last time he played the game. He aims the ball, releases it, and watches as it goes flying towards the Pidgey.

The ball connects with the Pidgey and encapsulates it. The ball rises into the air, before falling down to land on the grass.

The ball shakes.

Once. Twice. Thrice.

The ball stops moving.

And just like that, Max Verstappen is now the owner of a Pidgey.

  


* * *

  


**Tuesday 2.46pm  
2 January 2018  
Red Bull Technology Factory. Milton Keynes, England.**

Christian bumps into Max. 

Actually, perhaps he should say that Max quite literally walked into him. Because one moment, Christian was about to walk past Max. And the next moment, Max, who was staring at his phone the entire time, swerved sharply to the side and walked right into Christian.

“What’re you doing here? You don’t need to be back until February.” asks Christian, once Max has apologised profusely and Christian’s waved it off.

“Oh — I kinda got bored,” replies Max. “Don't worry about me,” he adds. “You know how I get when there’s no racing.”

Christian does know. 

“What had you so occupied?” he asks, gesturing towards Max’s phone.

Max looks embarrassed, but turns his phone so that Christian can see his screen.

Christian squints at the familiar-looking images. “Pokémon Go?”

“Yeah.” Max rubs the back of his neck.

“Back in 2016… Didn’t you and Daniel run around the hotels and paddocks catching Pokémon?”

A small smile appears on Max’s face. “We did,” he confirms. “Was nice.”

“You could catch Pokémon with him in Melbourne,” suggests Christian.

At that, Max’s smile fades. “He stopped playing,” says Max. “After the 2016 season ended.”

“I see.”

  


* * *

  


**Tuesday 5.30pm  
2 January 2018  
Red Bull Technology Factory. Milton Keynes, England. **

Later that evening, Christian happens to glance out of a window that he’s passing and spots a familiar figure. It’s Max, who’s still skulking around the factory grounds even though it's starting to get dark. Judging from the way Max is still staring at his screen and making strange-looking swiping motions with his finger, he’s most probably catching Pokémon.

Christian turns towards the phone in his hand and calls Daniel.

“Christian! What’s up, mate?”

“Max misses you, I think.”

Daniel makes a confused sound.

”He’s moping around the Red Bull factory even though he’s got absolutely no reason to be here because it’s only January 2nd. He’s also playing Pokémon Go,” says Christian. “You know, the game that both of you went absolutely crazy over in 2016.”

“Oh.” Daniel sounds surprised. 

There’s a pause.

“He’s probably just bored,” says Daniel, eventually. “It’s off-season, after all.”

Christian decides not to push the point and turns the conversation towards lighter topics. He asks about Daniel’s friends and family, requests that Daniel send them his best wishes, and listens to Daniel happily talk about Christmas barbecues and New Year’s fireworks.

Daniel doesn’t mention Max again, and Christian doesn’t ask.

After the call ends, Christian glances towards the window. 

There’s no sign of Max. Hopefully, he’s gone home. Or well, hopefully he’s gone back to whatever hotel he’s staying in. After all, Max lives in Monaco and Red Bull’s factory is here in England.

Which means that Max hopped on a cross-country flight just to skulk around Red Bull’s factory.

Christian sighs and wishes that his drivers' interpersonal communication skills are as good as their racing skills.

  


* * *

  


**Wednesday 1.51am  
3 January 2018  
Daniel’s childhood home. Perth, Australia. **

Daniel stares down at the phone in his hand.

Well. That was unexpected.

During the off-season, Christian normally never calls Daniel in the middle of the night unless it’s urgent. It was well past 1am when Christian called, which means that he’s clearly forgotten that Daniel’s in Perth, which is eight hours ahead of England.

Daniel thinks about Max wandering alone around Red Bull’s factory to catch Pokémon. He thinks of all the laughter that they had racing each other to the next Pokémon back in 2016, and of the way a good part of the paddock erupted in fits when a wild Pikachu appeared outside Sebastian’s garage at Monza, about half an hour before one of the free practice sessions. It was in September, so everyone was still playing the game.

It was also the time when the game kept getting stuck and not responding, thanks to what seemed like the entire planet playing the game at once in a nostalgic frenzy.

Still, the fun memories far outweigh the frustrating ones.

On a whim, Daniel opens WhatsApp and sends a text.

> Daniel: Heard you’re catching Pokémon again  
>  Daniel: Can you catch an English Pikachu for me?

  


* * *

  


**Wednesday 10.32am  
3 January 2018  
DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel. Milton Keynes, England. **

The next day, when Max checks his messaging apps, there’s a text from Daniel asking Max to catch a Pikachu for him.

When did Daniel start playing Pokémon Go again?

> Max: I just checked  
>  Max: We still can’t trade Pokémon  
>  Daniel: That’s okay  
>  Daniel: We’ll trade whenever they finally launch the feature

Trading isn’t even part of the game yet, despite being the game’s most-anticipated feature. And Daniel definitely has a Pikachu, because Max caught quite a few with him at various circuits in 2016.

But the fact that Daniel wants to some day receive a Pokémon that Max caught…

> Max: Okay  
>  Max: Catch me an Australian Pikachu?  
>  Daniel: Of course

  


* * *

  


**Wednesday 7.48pm  
3 January 2018  
Daniel’s childhood home. Perth, Australia. **

Daniel hasn’t played Pokémon Go since the 2016 season ended and he was too busy hanging out his family and all his mates back in Perth. The cons of being an Australian who participates in a sport that’s centred primarily in Europe.

But just for Max, Daniel re-downloads Pokémon Go, figures out his login details, and starts googling ‘Pokémon Go how to catch Pikachu.’

It turns out that some extremely enterprising and technically talented Pokémon Go fans have made _maps_.

  


* * *

  


**Wednesday 11.25am  
3 January 2018  
DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel. Milton Keynes, England. **

Max has been looking up Pokémon Go maps for the last half hour. These maps are created by technically-gifted fans, and show where various Pokemon are spawning, along with GPS locations. This makes it a lot easier for players to track down the Pokémon that they want. 

Luckily, it seems that there’s some holiday event going on at the moment, which has increased the Pikachu spawn rate. That’s good, because Max remembers how hard it was to find a Pikachu, back when the game first came out.

Back then, Max, Daniel, and all the other people playing Pokémon Go _ran_ whenever someone spotted a Pikachu. And other rare Pokémon. Like Snorlax. Dragonite. Lapras.

Max spies a Pikachu a couple of streets down from his hotel, and pulls up Google Maps to make sure that he’s not going to accidentally get blocked by a highway or something of the sort.

The coast looks clear.

Max screenshots the part of the map with the Pikachu on it and hurries out of his hotel room.

A couple of blocks straight ahead, a couple of turns, and… there! A Pikachu appears on his phone screen.

Max clicks on the Pikachu and feeds it a berry in order to increase his chances of catching it. He uses the strongest ball he has — an Ultra Ball — and even tries to make a curved shot, because he read that it increases his chances of catching the Pokémon.

The ball connects with the Pikachu, but it breaks out on the first shake.

Annoying electric rat. 

Max repeats his actions, praying that the Pikachu won’t run away.

He catches the Pikachu on the second try.

Thanks to the ongoing event, the Pikachu is wearing a cute red-and-white Santa hat. 

Max smiles and screenshots the Pikachu, who is smiling happily. Then, he sends the screenshot to Daniel.

> Max: English Pikachu! ⚡

  


* * *

  


**Thursday 4.27pm  
4 January 2018  
Perth, Australia. **

Daniel tries to play foosball by himself.

It’s a lost cause, he knows. Because this isn't something like squash, where you could theoretically play against yourself. 

In one-person squash, you hit the ball to the wall, wait until it comes back towards you, chase it down and hit it to the wall again. 

Rinse and repeat.

Daniel throws the ball into the centre of the foosball table and tries to whack it into the opponent’s goal. It should be easy, given that there’s no one defending against him.

But the ball ricochets against the side of the foosball table and bounces off.

Daniel gives it a few more tries, but his heart is not in it, and he can’t even score a goal.

He wanders off.

  


* * *

  


**Thursday 6.08pm  
4 January 2018  
Red Bull Technology Factory. Milton Keynes, England. **

The next day is unexpectedly chilly, and Max forgot to bring gloves. So he retreats to one of the meeting rooms and starts making a house out of playing cards.

He’s using the deck that he and Daniel frequently use during the F1 season. Between Max, Daniel, and their respective trainers, they’ve got an enthusiastic quartet who frequently play all sorts of card games together.

Max uses a little too much force when trying to get two cards to form an inverted v-shape, and that layer of his house of cards comes tumbling down. He hears Daniel’s laughter in his ears and somehow, he feels a little better.

  


* * *

  


**Friday 3.33pm  
5 January 2018  
Daniel’s childhood home. Perth, Australia. **

Daniel sits down in front of his bedroom mirror and tries to get his cap to sit properly on his head solely by jerking his head up and down in order to adjust the cap.

He doesn’t succeed, despite his repeated tries.

Once, he doesn’t even manage to catch the cap with his head, and it dives towards the floor. As Daniel bends down to pick up the cap, the damn cap seems to stare at him reproachingly.

He tries a few more times. Still no success.

He has no idea how Max does it. Then again, Max does seem to live in caps.

Daniel tries again, and he manages a passable attempt. The cap’s not fully on his head, but at least half his head has gotten into the cap.

But somehow, as Daniel looks at himself in the mirror with a cap perched awkwardly on his head, he feels a little better.

  


* * *

  


**Friday 11.11am  
5 January 2018  
Red Bull Technology Factory. Milton Keynes, England. **

Max continues to loiter around the Red Bull factory. He’s in the same room as his car — the one that he will drive for the 2017 season. But Max can’t do anything with the car other than to look at it, because the engineers are still frantically improving it.

He… 

He misses Daniel.

And so, Max gives in.

> Max: Melbourne’s on the 26th of March, yeah?  
>  Dan: Yeah  
>  Max: When will you be flying in?

Max usually aims to arrive on the Wednesday before the Grand Prix. That’s because Thursday is media day, and Friday to Sunday is the Grand Prix itself. But usually, he flies in a day earlier for Melbourne. Mostly so he can adjust to the timezone difference.

Monaco and Melbourne are ten timezones apart, after all.

> Daniel: Not sure yet  
>  Daniel: You?  
>  Max: Not sure

  


* * *

  


**Friday 7.16pm  
5 January 2018  
Daniel’s childhood home. Perth, Australia. **

Daniel hesitates a moment before sending the message he’s typed.

Because he…

He misses Max.

And so, Daniel gives in.

> Daniel: Could fly in earlier, though, if you’ll be there 

The moment he sends the text, Daniel kind of regrets it. But he also kind of doesn’t regret it.

It’s a strange mix of feelings.

> Max: Yeah. Why not? When’s good for you? 

Daniel frowns.

> Daniel: Hm  
>  Daniel: If you can fly in a day or two early, we can hang out for a bit  
>  Daniel: My parents will by flying in, as usual  
>  Daniel: And once they get to Melbourne, they’d love to say hi and take you around 

  


* * *

  


**Friday 11.20am  
5 January 2018  
Red Bull Technology Factory. Milton Keynes, England. **

Max stares at the message that Daniel has just sent. He knows that Daniel really treasures his off-season in Perth, mostly because that’s about the only long stretch of time that he gets to spend with his Perth family and friends. 

He really wants to say yes, but it just feels… awkward. Even if they hang out together a lot when Daniel’s in Monaco.

But if Daniel’s offering…

> Max: If you and your parents don’t mind, that would be nice  
>  Daniel: Yeah it’s cool  
>  Daniel: I mean, you’ve met them before, but only with the stress of a Grand Prix hanging over everyone’s heads  
>  Max: I’ll arrive the Monday before the Grand Prix, then?  
> 

Daniel did say a day or two early, after all. If Max arrives on Monday, he can have a night to recover from the journey before spending Tuesday and Wednesday with Daniel and his family. Thursday’s media day, and Friday to Sunday is the Melbourne Grand Prix.

> Daniel: Works  
>  Daniel: Looking up flights now 

  


* * *

  


**Friday 8.08pm  
5 January 2018  
Daniel’s childhood home. Perth, Australia. **

Max has sent a screenshot of his various flights, including the flight numbers.

> Max: Booked

Daniel looks out of his window. It’s already past eight at night, so the last rays of Perth’s summer sunlight are slowly disappearing

But for the first time in a while, he feels something glow within him.

  


* * *

  


**Friday 12.12pm  
5 January 2018  
Red Bull Technology Factory. Milton Keynes, England. **

Daniel has sent a screenshot of his flight, including the flight number.

> Daniel: Nice  
>  Daniel: Here’s mine  
> 

Max looks out of the window. It’s still grey and overcast, even though it’s past twelve in the afternoon, and the sun should be high in the sky.

But somehow, he no longer feels quite as melancholy.

**Author's Note:**

>  **Timezones**  
>  \- Perth is 7 hours ahead of Monaco and 8 hours ahead of England.  
> \- The timestamps in each scene takes this timezone difference into account, allowing you to figure out when certain scenes take place close to each other.
> 
>  **Notes**  
>  \- The race results and their coincidental overlap with Max’s birthday are real. Red Bull seem to like racing in Malaysia. Max’s first Formula 1 points were at the 2015 Malaysian Grand Prix.  
> \- Title is a play on the phrase ‘Wake me up when September ends,’ which is also the title of a very melancholic Green Day song.  
> \- Entirely inspired by the melancholic melody and scenes in this [official Red Bull](https://whatdidwejustdo.tumblr.com/post/644641461244133376) video of Max and Daniel moping around during the 2017-18 off season.  
> \- Pokémon Go was launched in July 2016 to a worldwide frenzy.
> 
> Thanks for reading. Your comments and kudos always make my day. Tumblr - whatdidwejustdo
> 
> I miss racing.


End file.
